Leadership and Legitimacy

University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration, UZH Business Working Paper No. 308.

44 Pages Posted: 29 Aug 2012 Last revised: 31 Aug 2012

See all articles by Christian Voegtlin

Christian Voegtlin

ZHAW School of Management and Law; University of Zurich - Department of Business Administration; University of Zurich - Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology

Ina Maria Kaufmann

Institute of Organization and Administrative Science, University of Zurich

Date Written: August 30, 2012

Abstract

The article links leadership and legitimacy in globalizing business. It forwards a framework for analyzing how actors in organizations may build and maintain organizational legitimacy through different strategies. The discussion connects strategies for legitimizing organizational conduct across levels of analysis, highlighting the role of leadership in this process. The article builds on organizational discourse analysis to explain how individual actors may shape societal perceptions around organizational legitimacy. The presented framework highlights three generic strategies and the corresponding processes associated with leading toward legitimacy. In this way, it emphasizes mechanisms for gaining and maintaining legitimacy for each strategic response of the organization in relation to rhetorical tactics used to influence discourses and the resulting necessary leadership resources. The framework offers future theoretical and empirical research directions for the analysis of legitimacy discourses.

Keywords: discourse analysis, leadership, legitimacy, level of analysis, strategies

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Suggested Citation

Voegtlin, Christian and Kaufmann, Ina Maria, Leadership and Legitimacy (August 30, 2012). University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration, UZH Business Working Paper No. 308., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2135390 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2135390

Christian Voegtlin (Contact Author)

ZHAW School of Management and Law ( email )

St.-Georgen-Platz 2
Winterthur, 8401
Switzerland

University of Zurich - Department of Business Administration ( email )

Universitätsstr. 84
CH-8006 Zürich, 8006
Switzerland

University of Zurich - Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology ( email )

Plattenstrasse 14
Zürich, 8032
Switzerland

Ina Maria Kaufmann

Institute of Organization and Administrative Science, University of Zurich ( email )

Universitätsstrasse 84
Zurich, 8006
Switzerland

HOME PAGE: http://www.iou.uzh.ch/bwl/index.php

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